


Rooting For This Guy

by orphan_account



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Character Study, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-08
Updated: 2012-09-08
Packaged: 2017-11-13 20:03:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/507203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Better call it, Coulson, cos I'm starting to root for this guy."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rooting For This Guy

Clint Barton has a problem called Rooting For This Guy.

It's a problem that means that a bunch of the targets he is sent out to track down and - _neutralize_ , is the official term - end up in a different country under a different name and some variation of a witness protection program because Clint had started to root for them halfway through.

It's a problem that means Natasha Romanoff comes to S.H.I.E.L.D in a car instead of a body bag because Clint did the one thing you are never ever ever ever to do.

He fell in love with a target.

'Maybe you should have been a football coach, son.' says Coulson, when yet another target of Clint's escapes _neutralization_ because halfway through Clint had started to Root For This Guy. 'Seek out the underdogs. Put them onto the field.' Clint says nothing. He knows that Coulson knows, and if Coulson knows Fury probably knows, and it occurs to him often to wonder why he isn't out of a job yet. The answer is simple. It is hard to punish Barton for his habit of Rooting For That Guy quite simply because the people that he starts to root for are often the ones to bring home the Super Bowl. Clint has instincts you can trust. And Clint is something that it is hard to find in the men trained for S.H.I.E.L.D - he is good.

And they have started to root for him.

Because Clint Barton does something a highly-trained international assasin is never ever ever supposed to do.

He cares.


End file.
